OF  THE 
UNIVERSITY 

OF 


PRICE, 


IAN   EPITOME) 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

OF   THE 

EMINENT    REVOLUTIONARY    PATRIOT 

AND   APOSTLE    OF    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY 


THOMAS  PAINE 

FROM    THE    BUST    BY    SIDNEY    MORSE,    IN    INDEPENDENCE    HALL,    PHILADELPHIA 

1737  = 1809 


A  PAPER 

/ 
ON  THE 

LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

OF 

MR.  THOMAS  PAINE 


PREPARED  AND  READ  BY  THE  SCRIBE 

(HON.    JAMES    A.    RANDALL) 

Before  the  Society  of  the 

PSYCHIC  BAND  OF  RESEARCH 

DETROIT,  MICH. 


Printed,  Published  and  Sold  by  the  Society. 


1909 


COPYRIGHTED 


Introductory  Note  By  the  President  of  the 
P.  B.  of  Research. 

Not  the  least  remarkable  thing  about  the  following  pages  is 
that  at  this  late  day,  so  long  after  the  living  Paine  played  so 
conspicuous  a  part  in  the  world's  most  glorious  epoch  as  bearing 
upon  the  destiny  of  this  nation,  so  much  new  light  and  such  cogent 
chastening  of  previous  harsh  judgments  should  be  supplied  by 
the  author. 

Paine  was  one  of  the  best  and  truest  of  men,  and  in  religion 
was  an  iconoclastic  thinker  and  lived  a  century  or  more  ahead  of 
his  time.  It  was  a  sublime  courage  which  in  the  /8th  century — 
a  time  of  great  religious  intolerance  and  superstition  compared 
with  the  present  20th — prompted  Paine  to  write  and  give  to  the 
world  his  masterful  'Age  of  Reason,'  a  work  which  breathed  the 
loftiest  sentiments  of  pure  natural  religion  than  were  ever  penned 
by  man. 

"I  believe  in  one  God,  and  the  word  of  Cod  is  the  creation 
we  behold,  and  it  is  in  this  word  which  no  human  invention  can 
counterfeit  or  alter  that  Cod  speaketh  universally  to  man'  was 
Paine 's  declaration  of  faith.  He  believed  in  the  equality  of  man 
and  that  religious  duties  consisted  in  doing  justice,  loving  mercy 
and  endeavoring  to  make  his  fellow  creatures  happy. 

For  having  thus  declared  himself,  Paine,  whose  active  mind 
and  brilliant,  forceful  pen  had  played  so  important  a  part  in 
rearing  a  great  Republic  in  America,  was  practically  dropped 
from  its  history. 

Had  Paine  never  written  the  'Age  of  Reason  his  memory 
would  have  been  lauded  for  his  great  work  during  the  revolu- 
tionary struggle,  but  unfortunately  he  is  known  mainly  as  a  free 
thinker,  and  by  the  ignorant  as  well  as  those  who  never  read  his 
writings,  as  a  scoffer  against  religion.  This  grand  work  turned 


M342008 


public  opinion  in  the  United  States,  as  well  as  in  England, 
against  Paine. 

The  World  has  moved.  Human  intelligence  has  advanced. 
Man  is  beginning  to  do  his  own  thinking,  and  Paine  is  taking 
his  place  among  the  few  great  men,  so-called,  of  the  revolution. 

In  his  second  'Crisis'  on  January  13,  1777,  Paine  suggested 
the  United  States  of  America  as  a  proper  name  for  the  new 
republic  on  gaining  its  independence. 

It  was  some  months  previous  to  January  9,  1776,  when 
Paine  s  'Common  Sense  burst  upon  the  people  and  brought  about 
the  declaration  of  July  4  of  that  year,  that  Paine  first  sent  out 
a  feeler  in  an  essay  published  by  him  October  18,  1775,  entitled 
'A  Serious  Thought',  in  which  he  intimated  that  the  colonies 
ought  to  cut  loose  from  the  mother  country. 

The  distinguishing  feature  of  this  succinct,  brilliant  and  com 
prehensive  work  °f  Mr.  Randall  is  its  bold  comparisons  and  fear- 
less deductions  in  logic.  It  is  a  startling  innovation  and  a  rude 
assault  upon  cherished  traditions  to  place  the  name  of  Paine 
above  those  of  Washington,  Franklin,  and  other  of  the  fathers 
in  bringing  about  the  establishment  of  this  mighty  republic,  but 
he  presents  the  facts  and  the  genius  of  truth  seems  to  be  in  the 
conclusions. 

There  are  touches  of  sentiment  that  carry  the  breath  of 
poetry,  if  not  the  spiritual  essence,  which  so  many  reject  as  yet, 
and  there  are  the  hard,  resounding  blows  of  truth  wielded  by  one 
who  is  unafraid,  and  who  has  his  whole  heart  in  the  work- 

The  author  does  not  hold  a  brief  for  Mr.  Paine,  but 
clearly  aims  to  picture  him  as  he  was,  to  relieve  him  of  the  odium 
of  false  testimony  and  grant  the  world  a  chance  for  fair,  enlight- 
ened judgment  of  the  wonderful  man. 

When  the  intellectual  Paine  had  passed  in  the  flesh  from  the 
haunts  of  men,  when  his  hand  could  no  longer  hold  his  brilliant 
pen,  and  when  human  ghouls  could  empty  the  vials  of  wrath  and 
vituperation  with  impunity,  one  James  Cheatham,  of  New  York, 


then  editor  and  publisher  of  the  'American  Citizen,'  whom  Paine 
had  unmercifully  flailed  through  the  public  press,  in  J  809  under- 
took t°  write,  what  he  was  pleased  to  call,  the  life  of  Paine. 
Cheatham  was  a  foresworn  witness,  a  subtle  poisoner  of  his  own 
sentiments  and  the  eager  assassin  of  character  where  his  own 
sufered  by  comparison.  He  was  the  ass  kicking  the  dead  lion 
from  which  he  would  have  fled  in  terror  had  he  been  alive,  and 
then  it  was  that  Cheatham,  the  despicable,  did  his  work- 
How  much  better  the  grand  patriot,  statesman,  soldier,  writer 
and  unselfish  lover  of  his  fellow  men,  appears  in  the  writings  of 
Rev.  Moncure  D.  Conway,  broad,  fair  and  liberal.  He  con- 
scientiously investigated  and  put  down  his  conception  of  the  truth 
without  fear  or  favor.  He  routs  Cheatham  and  places  Paine 
much  nearer  the  higher  position  which  will  eventually  be  his  in 
the  eyes  of  the  world.* 

Paine  was  the  writer  of  immortal  literature.  He  was  the 
irresistible  champion  of  human  liberty.  He  was  conspicuously  a 
good  man  in  all  his  acts  and  thoughts,  clean  and  unselfish  to  the 
uttermost  degree.  His  courage  was  invincible,  and  no  allure- 
ments of  earthly  wealth  or  honors,  not  the  menace  of  death  itself 
could  swerve  him  from  his  high  purpose.  Some  one  has  said  of 
Paine,  "If  he  lived  today  his  severest  critics  would  be  the  follow- 
ers of  Bob  Ingersoll,  who  would  criticize  him  for  not  going 
further,  and  the  Chautauqua  assemblies  Would  swing  wide  their 
gates  that  he  might  enter." 

No  one  should  have  the  slightest  hesitation  in  commending 
this  little  work  of  the  Scribe  to  every  person  who  can  spare  the 
time  to  read  it,  for  Mr.  Randall  has  written  to  the  end  that  the 
memory  of  Paine,  who  was  one  of  the  great  men  of  his  time, 
might  come  into  its  own,  and  those  who  read  will,  at  least,  admire 
the  diction,  the  beauty,  the  earnestness  and  integrity  of  his  work- 

JOSEPH  BRENT. 


*Life  of  Thomas  Paine,  toith  a  history  of  his  literary,  political  and 
religious  career  in  America,  France  and  England.  2  Vols.  900  pp.  7893. 
G.  P.  Pu/nam's  Sons. 


THOMAS    PAINE 

FROM     PAINTING    BY    JARVIS,     1803 


ESPONDING  to  the  suggestion  of 
the  members  of  this  little  band  of 
Psychic  Research  engaged  in  the 
study  of  new  and  advanced 
thought,  and  prompted  by  the  fact 
that  this  year  of  1909  is  the  cen- 
tenary of  his  passing  from  the 
mortal  life,  this  little  paper  has 
been  prepared  in  which  I  have  endeavored  to  give  to 
you  the  salient  points  and  outlines  of  Mr.  Paine's  dis- 
tinguished and  somewhat  stormy  career,  covering  a 
period  from  the  time  he  came  to  America  in  the  latter 
part  of  1774,  until  he  passed  into  the  realm  of  spirit 
less  than  thirty-five  years  thereafter. 

Within  the  length  of  a  paper  of  this  character  it 
would  be  impossible  to  cover,  at  least  by  more  than 
mere  mention,  the  work  of  this  ever  active  and  busy 
man,  for  to  have  done  otherwise  would  have  taken  the 
space  which  it  was  preferred  to  use  in  brief,  running 
comments  when  going  over,  as  stated,  the  principal 
events  in  Mr.  Paine's  life,  as  they  were  chronologically 
reached,  as  well  in  brief  quotations  from  his  principal 
works,  therefore  it  is,  many  and  most  in  number  of  the 

writings  of  Mr.  Paine  are  not  even  mentioned. 
*     *     *     * 

Born  in  1736,  the  son  of  an  English  Quaker,  and 
armed  with  letters  of  introduction  from  Dr.  Franklin, 
who  was  then  in  London  on  an  embassy  from  a  North 
American  State  to  the  British  Government,  Mr.  Paine 
emigrated  to  America  in  the  latter  part  of  1774,  when 


8  Paine's  Opportunity  Came 

the  quarrel  between  the  Colonies  and  the  mother  country 
was  reaching  an  acute  stage,  and  the  question  of  sub- 
mitting to  petty  and  unjust  taxes  levied  by  the  mother 
country  was  the  paramount  one. 

Able,  in  the  very  prime  of  manhood,  for  he  was  but 
38,  of  a  combative  temper,  inherently  a  great  lover  of 
liberty  and  freedom,  and  a  strong,  vigorous  and  incisive 
writer,  pre-eminently  possessing  the  power  of  clearly 
and  terribly  stating  a  fact,  Mr.  Paine's  opportunity  came 
when  the  leaders  of  the  opposition  to  England,  in  the 
latter  part  of  1775,  had  become  weak  and  dispirited  and 
ready  to  compromise  on  any  reasonable  terms. 

Alluding  to  the  predominant  wishes  of  the  colonists 
soon  after  his  arrival  in  America,  Paine,  in  his  Crisis 
VII,  says:  that  he  found  the  disposition  of  the  people 
such  they  might  have  been  led  by  a  thread  and  governed 
by  a  reed.  Their  attachment  to  Britain  was  obstinate, 
and  it  was  at  that  time  a  kind  of  treason  to  speak  against 
it;  they  disliked  the  ministry,  but  they  esteemed  the  na- 
tion. Their  idea  of  grievance  operated  without  resent- 
ment and  their  single  object  was  reconciliation. 

Then  it  was  that  Paine,  taking  advantage  of  this 
fact,  set  the  colonies  on  fire,  laying  the  foundation  of 
this  great  Republic,  by  the  writing  and  publication  of 
that  famous  pamphlet  appealing  to  the  feelings  and  pride 
of  a  brave,  faithful,  abused  and  misrepresented  people, 
and  which  spoke  a  language  so  terrible  in  its  conse- 
quences to  England,  and  so  strong,  powerful  and  direct, 
setting  forth  in  burning  eloquence  a  telling  array  of 
facts  and  arguments,  which  showed  the  very  need  of 


Aroused  Public  Opinion 


separation  and,  incidentally,  the  establishment  of  a  Re- 
public. 

The  enormous  circulation  of  this  remarkable  little 
book  of  but  forty-seven  pages,  a  book  which  gave  spirit 
and  resolution  to  the  wavering  and  undetermined,  and 
inspired  a  decisive  energy  into  their  councils,  instantly 
aroused  smouldering  public  opinion,  and  by  it,  the  feel- 
ing of  the  people  of  the  colonies  was  consolidated.  The 
loyalists  could  not,  and  dared  not  even  attempt  to  an- 
swer the  powerful,  and,  by  reason  of  the  circumstances, 
inflammatory  utterances  of  the  unknown  author,  and, 
public  opinion  thus  aroused,  launched  the  colonies  on 
their  seven  year's  struggle  for  commercial  and  national 
freedom. 

Up  to  this  time,  it  must  not  be  forgotten,  the  idea 
of  separation  from  England  had  not  been  seriously 
thought  of.  "Before  the  19th  of  April"  (1775),  writes 
Jefferson,  "I  never  heard  a  whisper  of  a  disposition  to 
separate  from  the  mother  country." 

In  March  of  that  year  (1775)  Franklin  declared  that 
"No  American,  drunk  or  sober,  thought  of  such  a  thing 
as  independence." 

It  was  in  May  of  1775,  that  George  Washington,  in 
reply  to  the  interrogation  of  a  friend  as  to  his  attitude 
on  the  question  of  separation,  said,  "If  you  ever  hear 
of  my  joining  in  any  such  measure  of  separation,  set  me 
down  for  anything  and  everything  wicked,"  and  the 
sentiment  was  more  strongly  and  unequivocally  iterated 
by  him  in  the  following  July,  after  he  had  taken  com- 
mand of  the  army,  when  he  said  that  he  abhorred  the 
idea  of  independence. 


10  Lighted  the  Torch  of  Liberty 

It  was  Paine  and  his  "Common  Sense"  (Jan.  9,  1776) 
which  wrote  the  future  of  the  United  States  and  changed 
the  views  of  Mr.  Washington  as  well  as  a  majority  of 
the  people  of  the  colonies,  and  led  to  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  the  subsequent  career  of  Washington, 
who  at  that  time  was  a  very  wealthy  slave  holding  Vir- 
ginia farmer.  Had  it  not  been  for  Thomas  Paine,  his- 
tory would  not  record  the  struggle,  known  as  the  war  of 
the  revolution,  and  "Common  Sense"  may  be  called  the 
fire  that  relighted  the  torch  of  liberty  which  the  pessim- 
ism coming  from  hardships  had  well  nigh  exhausted. 

There  is  a  complete  concurrence  of  testimony,  and  it 
was  unanimously  conceded  by  the  people  of  the  colonies 
at  the  time  that  the  writing  and  publication  of  "Common 
Sense"  was  the  turning  point  in  the  struggle,  for  it 
roused  and  consolidated  public  sentiment,  swept  the 
waverers  along  with  the  tide  and  independence  was 
assured.  To  this  fact  I  will  again  advert. 

After  the  real  beginning  of  hostilities  following  the 
Declaration,  the  little,  half-clad  continental  army  of  a 
few  thousands  under  Washington,  suffering  defeat  after 
defeat,  disheartened  and  discouraged,  after  having  been 
driven  across  the  Delaware,  retreated  to  Newark 
(Nov.  23,  1776),  where,  because  of  the  expiration  of 
their  enlistment,  half  of  the  little  army  returned  to  their 
homes,  when  affairs  were  in  a  desperate  plight,  for  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  British  held  all  of  New 
Jersey,  and,  they  claimed  were  only  waiting  for  the 
river  to  freeze  over  to  catch  Washington  and  thus  end 
the  war.  Philadelphia  was  in  a  panic.  Congress,  which 
had  been  meeting  there  had  taken  refuge  in  Baltimore. 


Times  that  Tried  Men's  Souls  1 1 

Hosts  of  half-hearted  people  were  taking  what  was 
called  "British  Protection,"  in  other  words,  swearing 
allegiance  to  the  King,  and  the  times  indeed  were 
trying  the  very  souls  of  men.  Then  it  was  that 
this  man  of  unconquerable  perseverance,  who  at  the 
time  was  serving  as  a  private  soldier  under  General 
Washington,  by  the  light  of  the  camp  fire,  wrote  the 
first  number  of  that  little  pamphlet  which  has  never 
been  surpassed  for  true  eloquence  and  power,  which  he 
called  the  "Crisis." 

The  battle  of  Trenton  (Dec.  25,  1776),  followed,  be- 
fore which  what  was  left  of  the  little  army  was  called 
together  in  little  groups  to  listen  to  the  reading  of 
Paine's  thrilling  exhortation,  beginning: 

"These  are  the  times  that  try  men's  souls.  The  sum- 
mer soldier  and  the  sunshine  patriot  will  in  this  crisis 
shrink  from  the  service  of  his  country,  but  he  that  stands 
it  now  deserves  the  love  and  thanks  of  man  and  woman. 
Tyranny,  like  hell  itself,  is  not  easily  conquered,  yet  we 
have  this  consolation  with  us,  that  the  harder  the  con- 
flict the  more  glorious  the  triumph;  what  we  obtain  too 
cheap  we  esteem  too  lightly;  'tis  dearness  only  that 
gives  everything  its  value.  Heaven  knows  how  to  put 
a  price  on  its  goods,  and  it  would  be  strange  indeed 
if  so  celestial  an  article  as  Freedom  should  not  be  highly 
rated." 

Toward  the  close  of  this  remarkably  adroit  and  pow- 
erful, simple  and  sympathetic  address,  after  hinting  at 
the  treatment  in  the  way  of  confiscation  which  ought  to 
be  accorded  the  loyalists  or  tories,  Paine  said: 

"Quitting  this  class  of  men  I  turn  with  the  warm 


12  Cathered  Strength  from  Distress 

ardor  of  a  friend  to  those  who  have  nobly  stood,  and  are 
yet  determined  to  stand  the  matter  out.  I  call  not  upon 
a  few,  but  upon  all.  Not  on  this  State,  or  that  State, 
but  on  every  State.  Up  and  help  us!  Lay  your  shoul- 
der to  the  wheel;  better  have  too  much  force  than  too 
little,  when  so  great  an  object  is  at  stake.  Let  it  be 
told  to  the  future  world  that  in  the  depths  of  winter, 
when  nothing  but  hope  and  virtue  could  survive,  that 
the  city  and  the  country,  alarmed  at  one  common  dan- 
ger, came  forth  to  meet  and  repulse  it!  Say  not  that 
thousands  are  gone,  but  turn  out  your  tens  of  thous- 
ands ;  throw  not  the  burden  of  the  day  upon  Providence, 
but  'Show  your  faith  by  your  works,'  that  God  may 
bless  you.  It  matters  not  where  you  live,  or  what  rank 
in  life  you  hold,  the  evil  or  the  blessing  will  reach  you 
all.  The  far  and  the  near,  the  home  counties  and  the 
back,  the  rich  and  the  poor  will  suffer  or  rejoice  alike. 
The  heart  that  feels  not  now,  is  dead.  The  blood  of  his 
children  will  curse  his  cowardice,  who  shrinks  back  at  a 
time  when  a  little  might  have  saved  the  whole,  and 
made  them  happy.  I  love  the  man  that  can  smile  when 
in  trouble,  that  can  gather  strength  from  distress,  and 
grow  brave  by  reflection.  'Tis  the  business  of  little 
minds  to  shrink,  but  he  whose  heart  is  firm  and  whose 
conscience  approves  his  conduct  will  pursue  his  princi- 
ples unto  death.  My  own  line  of  reasoning  is,  to  myself, 
as  straight  and  clear  as  a  ray  of  light.  Not  all  the 
treasures  of  the  world,  so  far  as  I  believe,  could  have 
induced  me  to  support  an  offensive  war,  for  I  think  it 
murder,  but  if  a  thief  breaks  into  my  house,  burns  and 
destroys  my  property,  and  kills  or  threatens  to  kill  me 


Turned  Despair  into  Hope  13 

or  those  that  are  in  it,  am  I  to  suffer  for  it?  What  sig- 
nifies it  to  me  whether  he  who  does  it  is  a  king  or  a 
common  man,  my  countryman  or  not  my  countryman, 
whether  it  be  done  by  an  individual  villain  or  an  army 
of  them.  If  we  reason  to  the  root  of  things  we  shall 
find  no  difference,  neither  can  any  just  cause  be  as- 
signed why  we  should  punish  in  the  one  case  and  par- 
don in  the  other.  Let  them  call  me  rebel  and  welcome 
for  I  feel  no  concern  from  it,  but  I  should  suffer  the 
misery  of  devils  were  I  to  make  a  strumpet  of  my  soul 
by  swearing  allegiance  to  one  whose  character  is  that 
of  a  sottish,  stupid,  stubborn,  worthless,  brutish  man. 
I  conceive  likewise  a  horrid  idea  in  receiving  mercy  from 
a  being  who  at  the  last  day  shall  be  found  shrieking  to 
the  rocks  and  mountains  to  cover  him,  and  fleeing  with 
terror  from  the  orphan,  the  widow  and  the  slain  of  Am- 
erica!" 

Printed  copies  of  this  little  pamphlet  were  scattered 
broadcast,  and  in  the  army  and  out  of  it  it  had  a  simply 
marvelous  effect  in  restoring  a  courage  which  was  fast 
ebbing,  and  at  the  time  likely  to  result  in  the  disband- 
ing of  the  army.  It  turned  despair  into  hope,  gloom 
into  cheerfulness,  and  irresolution  into  firmness. 

Men  returned  to  the  army.  Washington  saw  his 
dispirited  soldiers  beaming  with  hope,  and,  "These  are 
the  times  that  try  men's  souls!"  became  a  battle  cry, 
and  were  a  magical  inspiration  to  the  army. 

Then,  Mr.  Chairman,  came  the  English  disaster  at 
Trenton,  (Dec.  25,  1776),  the  first  practical  and  glorious 
victory  of  the  continental  army,  a  victory  which  resulted 
in  the  surrender  of  the  Hessians. 


14  Victory  at  Trenton  Followed 

This  .victory  at  Trenton  with  the  capture  of  the 
hated  Hessians  put  new  life,  vigor  and  hope  into  the 
hearts  of  the  colonists.  It  was  the  turning  point  in  the 
fortunes  of  the  colonies,  for  victories  followed  which 
brought  new  recruits,  and  few  doubted  the  ultimate  re- 
sult of  the  war.  The  brave  patriots  who  had  affixed 
their  signatures  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence  had 
fewer  visions  of  the  drawing  of  the  halter. 

It  has  been  stated  by  many  that  it  was  Paine  with 
his  pen  and  Washington  with  his  sword,  who  fought 
and  won  the  war  of  the  revolution,  a  war  which  re- 
sulted in  the  establishment  of  a  republic,  now  the  great- 
est this  world  ever  saw,  and  under  the  protection  of 
which  live  over  one  hundred  millions  of  people,  but  I 
deny  the  truth  of  a  statement  which  thus  associates  the 
names  of  these  two  men  together,  for  it  is  a  belittling 
of  the  services  of  the  former  to  thus  associate  with  him 
the  latter,  of  which  I  will  have  occasion  to  refer  here- 
after. Say  rather,  that  it  was  George  the  Third,  the 
stubborn  and  stupid  hereditary  tainted  King  of  Eng- 
land, and  Mr.  Paine,  and  it  would  be  nearer  the  fact. 

Paul  Allen,  one  of  if  not  the  earliest  historical  writer 
on  the  American  Revolution  (1819)  in  referring  to  the 
moulding  of  sentiment  in  the  first  half  of  1776,  in  favor 
of  separation,  says: 

"Among  the  numerous  writers  on  the  momentous 
.  question,  the  most  luminous,  the  most  eloquent,  and  the 
most  forcible  was  Thomas  Paine.  His  pamphlet  entitled 
'Common  Sense*  was  not  only  read  but  understood  by 
everybody.  It  contained  plain  and  simple  truths  told  in 
a  style  and  language  which  entered  the  heart  of  every 


"Common  Sense1  Published  15 

man,  and  those  who  regard  the  independence  of  the 
United  States  as  a  blessing  will  never  cease  to  cherish 
the  remembrance  of  Thomas  Paine." 

Mr.  John  Fiske,  a  man  of  some  erudition,  a  gradu- 
ate of  Harvard,  and  for  a  time  its  assistant  librarian, 
some  fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago  essayed  to  write  a  his- 
tory of  the  Revolutionary  War  (and  from  the  fact  that 
he  refers  to  the  tone  of  Paine's  'Age  of  Reason'  as 
coarse,  containing  crude  argument,  and  with  the  im- 
provement of  popular  education  was  fast  sinking  into 
complete  and  deserved  oblivion,  and  for  other  reasons 
apparent  in  his  work,  he  is  not  here  quoted  as  an  au- 
thority, but  rather  as  a  compiler  of  historical  facts) 
after  speaking  of  Mr.  Paine  and  his  'Common  Sense' 
and  that  it  was  written  at  the  suggestion  of  Benjamin 
Rush  with  the  approval  of  Dr.  Franklin  and  Samuel 
Adams,  admits  that  this  great  caustic  pamphleteer  set 
forth  a  sensible  and  striking  statement  of  the  practical 
state  of  the  case  between  England  and  the  Colonies,  the 
reason  for  looking  upon  reconciliation  as  hopeless,  and 
for  seizing  the  moment  to  declare  to  the  world  what 
the  logic  of  events  was  already  making  as  an  accom- 
plished fact,  and  he  says  these  were  shrewdly  and  vividly 
set  forth  and  carried  conviction  wherever  it  went.  Fiske 
says  that  it  was  difficult  for  the  printers  with  the  clumsy 
presses  of  that  day  to  bring  out  copies  of  'Common 
Sense*  fast  enough  to  meet  the  demand  for  it,  more  than 
one  hundred  thousand  copies  being  speedily  put  out. 

Ramsey,  in  his  "American  Revolution"  (London, 
1793),  in  referring  to  Mr.  Paine's  pamphlet,  says:  "In 
union  with  the  feelings  and  sentiments  of  the  people,  it 


16  Rapidly  Changed  Opinion 

produced  surprising  effects.  Many  thousands  were  con- 
vinced and  were  led  to  approve  and  long  for  a  separa- 
tion from  the  mother  country,  though  that  measure  a 
few  months  before  was  not  only  foreign  to  their  wishes, 
but  the  object  of  their  abhorrence;  the  current  became 
so  strong  in  its  favor  that  it  bore  down  all  before  it." 

Cheatham,  the  renegade  apostate,  and  enemy  of 
Paine,  in  his  book  which  he  called  "The  Life  of  Paine" 
(1809),  says  that  "  'Common  Sense'  spoke  a  language 
which  the  colonists  had  felt,  but  had  not  dared  to  think ; 
that  its  popularity  terrible  in  its  consequences  to  the 
parent  country,  was  unexampled  in  the  history  of  the 
press.  It  was  first  read  with  alarm,  but  recovering  from 
the  first  shock  its  arguments  nourished  the  reader's  feel- 
ings, appealed  to  his  pride,  reanimated  his  hopes  and 
satisfied  his  understanding.  The  unknown  author  was 
hailed  by  the  people  (for  everybody  read  it)  as  an  angel 
sent  from  heaven  to  save  all  from  the  horrors  of  slavery 
by  his  timely,  powerful  and  unerring  counsels." 

When  "Common  Sense"  arrived  in  Albany  the  con- 
vention of  New  York  was  in  session.  George  Scott,  a 
leading  member,  alarmed  at  the  boldness  and  novelty  of 
its  arguments,  mentioned  his  fears  to  several  of  his  dis- 
tinguished colleagues,  and  suggested  a  private  meeting 
in  the  evening  for  the  purpose  of  preparing  an  answer. 
They  accordingly  met,  and  Mr.  McKesson  read  the 
pamphlet  through.  At  first  it  was  deemed  both  neces- 
sary and  expedient  to  answer  it  without  delay,  but  cast- 
ing about  for  the  requisite  arguments  they  concluded  to 
adjourn  and  meet  again.  In  a  few  evenings  they  reas- 
sembled, but  so  rapid  was  the  change  of  opinion  in  the 


Action  by  the  Colonies  17 

colonies  at  large  in  favor  of  independence,  and  at  a  loss 
for  answer,  they  agreed  not  to  oppose  it. 

North  Carolina  took  the  first  decisive  action  in  the 
latter  part  of  March,  1776. 

Rhode  Island,  with  its  original  charter  needed  not  to 
form  a  new  government,  but  on  the  fourth  of  May  omit- 
ted the  king's  name  from  its  public  documents  and  sher- 
iff's writs. 

Virginia  followed  on  the  fifth  by  choosing  a  conven- 
tion to  consider  the  question  of  independence. 

On  the  fifteenth  of  the  same  month  Congress  adopted 
the  resolution  of  Richard  Henry  Lee,  of  Virginia,  rec- 
ommending all  the  colonies  to  form  for  themselves  inde- 
pendent governments,  and  in  a  preamble  written  by 
John  Adams,  it  was  declared  that  the  American  people 
could  no  longer  conscientiously  take  oath  to  support 
any  government  deriving  its  authority  from  the  crown, 
and  with  the  adoption  of  this  resolution  the  whole  united 
colonies  were  put  upon  the  verge  of  what  was  at  the 
time  termed  "the  glorious  revolution." 

Connecticut,  like  Rhode  Island,  having  been  organ- 
ized under  the  charter  of  1662,  followed  (June  14),  and 
the  following  day  New  Hampshire,  New  Jersey,  Penn- 
sylvania, Delaware  and  Maryland,  and  on  July  first, 
every  single  one  of  the  colonies  had  cut  the  apron 
strings  which  held  them  to  the  mother  country. 

From  my  early  reading  of  colonial  history,  the  war 
of  the  revolution,  and  especially  of  the  period  covering 
the  fifteen  years  from  1770  to  1785,  in  my  youth  I 
formed  an  opinion  to  which  I  have  remained  steadfast, 
for  in  my  subsequent  reading  it  has  never  been  shaken, 


18  Mightier  than  the  Sword 

and  that  is:  to  the  inspired  Thomas  Paine,  and  to  him 
alone  can  be  credited  the  creation  and  consolidation  of 
a  sentiment  which  in  1775  made  the  separation  of  the 
colonies  from  Great  Britain,  and  their  establishment  into 
a  confederation  or  republic  possible,  and  at  no  time  since 
have  I  doubted  the  truth  of  the  old  saying,  that,  when 
well  wielded,  "The  Pen  is  Mightier  than  the  Sword." 

How  few  of  us  realize  the  vastness,  the  unparalleled 
resources,  the  greatness  of  our  country.  The  United 
States  with  its  area  of  three  millions  five  hundred  fifty- 
seven  thousand  square  miles,  is  eighteen  times  larger 
than  France,  fifty-six  times  larger  than  England,  and 
were  the  United  States  peopled  as  densely  as  those  two 
countries  they  would  contain,  approximately,  one  thous- 
and million  of  souls! 

From  the  original  thirteen  colonies  rebelling  against 
George  the  Third,  and  which,  urged  and  persuaded  by 
Paine  in  that  superbly  bitter,  that  masterly  and  wonder- 
fully forceful  pamphlet  of  "Common  Sense"  declared 
their  independence  on  July  Fourth  thereafter,  there  have 
sprung  a  people  who  have  increased  in  number,  wealth 
and  intelligence,  with  a  rapidity  in  which  history  furn- 
ishes no  parallel. 

The  republic  was  established.  Restless,  and  dissatis- 
fied to  remain  in  a  country  where  full  liberty  was  en- 
joyed, Paine  determined  to  return  to  England  and  open 
the  eyes  of  the  people  to  the  madness  and  stupidity  of 
its  government,  and  he  did  so. 

It  is  said  that  when  Dr.  Franklin  first  met  Paine, 
after  having  learned  of  his  intended  departure  for  Eng- 
land, he  expressed  regret  that  Paine  was,  voluntarily, 


For  the  Good  of  Nations  19 

leaving  a  land  where  full  liberty  was  enjoyed,  saying, 
"Where  liberty  is,  there  is  my  country,"  and  Paine 
quietly  replied,  "Where  liberty  is  not,  is  mine/' 

In  England,  in  reply  to  Burke's  pamphlet,  which  he 
called  "Reflections  on  the  Revolutions  of  France,"  (1790) 
he  wrote  the  "Rights  of  Man,"  the  first  part  of  which 
appeared  in  1791,  a  copy  of  the  original  edition  of  one 
hundred  sixty-two  pages,  as  well  as  a  governmental 
emasculated  copy  of  the  second  part,  issued  in  1792,  and 
rebound  in  one  volume  we  have  here  in  the  library.  Its 
circulation  was  enormous,  and  the  English  Government, 
taking  the  alarm,  endeavored  to  suppress  it,  but  without 
avail.  Much  of  its  influence  was  because  of  its  force,  its 
dignity,  and  temperance,  and  it  was  the  clear  statement 
of  facts,  and  the  time,  which  alone  made  it  inflammatory. 

In  his  preface  to  the  second  part  of  the  work,  and  in 
justification  of  its  production,  after  stating  that  it  was 
for  the  good  of  nations,  and,  (taking  a  fall  out  of  Burke 
who  was  on  the  government's  secret  pension  list),  not 
for  the  emolument  and  aggrandizement  of  particular  in- 
dividuals that  governments  ought  to  be  established,  and 
that  mankind  is  at  the  expense  of  supporting  it,  he 
states  an  unanswerable  proposition — and  note  with  what 
clearness  he  does  it: 

"The  defects  of  any  government  and  constitution, 
both  as  to  principle  and  form,  must  on  a  parity  of  reas- 
oning, be  as  open  to  discussion  as  the  defects  of  a  law, 
and  it  is  a  duty  every  man  owes  to  society  to  point  them 
out.  When  those  defects,  and  the  means  of  remedying 
them,  are  generally  seen  by  a  nation,  that  nation  will 
reform  its  government  or  its  constitution  in  the  one 


20  Branded  as  an  Outlaw 

case,  as  the  government  repealed  or  reformed  the  law  in 
the  other.  The  operation  of  government  is  restricted  to 
the  making  and  the  administering  of  laws,  but  it  is  to  a 
nation  that  the  right  of  forming,  or  reforming,  generat- 
ing or  regenerating  constitutions  and  governments  be- 
long, and  consequently,  those  subjects  as  subjects  of  in- 
vestigation are  always  before  a  country  as  a  matter  of 
right,  and  cannot,  without  invading  the  general  rights 
of  a  country  be  made  subjects  of  persecution.  On  this 
ground  I  will  meet  Mr.  Burke  whenever  he  please." 

Paine  was  indicted  for  treason,  before  which  and 
pending  his  trial,  in  recognition  of  his  ability,  of  his  re- 
publicanism, and  his  championship  of  the  people  of 
France,  he  was  elected  by  several  of  the  departments  as 
a  member  of  the  French  convention.  He  accepted  that 
of  Calais. 

As  the  easiest  way  to  get  rid  of  this  firebrand,  he  was 
allowed  by  the  English  Government  to  pass  into  France, 
first,  however,  being  branded  as  an  outlaw. 

In  France  (at  Calais)  he  was  received  by  the  firing 
of  guns  from  the  battery,  and  the  flying  of  flags,  and 
became  the  guest  of  honor  of  the  municipalities  through 
which  he  passed  on  his  way  to  the  French  capitol.  He 
was  treated  with  great  respect,  and  while  in  and  out  of 
the  convention  always  counseling  moderation,  and  not- 
withstanding his  inability  to  speak  the  language,  because 
of  his  judgment,  his  power  and  force  of  argument,  his 
very  greatness,  he  wielded  great  influence  in  that  stormy 
convention,  and  became  a  famous  figure.  He  took  his 
seat  in  this  excitable  body  in  the  latter  part  of  1792,  and 
in  the  memorable  and  exciting  scenes  which  followed, 


Looked  Daily  for  Death  2 1 

resulting  in  the  execution  of  Louis  XVI,  Paine,  moved 
by  his  humanity  and  mindful  of  the  help  the  king  had 
accorded  the  American  colonists  during  their  struggle 
for  independence,  strongly  and  eloquently  urged  disposi- 
tion of  the  king  by  banishment  to  the  United  States, 
closing  with  this  lofty  sentiment,  "My  anxiety  for  the 
cause  of  France  has  become,  for  the  moment,  concern 
for  its  honor.  If,  on  my  return  to  America  I  should 
employ  myself  on  a  history  of  the  French  Revolution,  I 
had  rather  record  a  thousand  errors  dictated  by  human- 
ity than  one  inspired  by  a  justice  too  severe." 

After  the  guillotine  had  fallen  which  sent  the  soul  of 
that  staunch  friend  of  the  struggling  American  colonies 
into  the  presence  of  its  maker,  realizing  his  inability  to 
accomplish  any  results  in  the  interests  of  humanity  and 
freedom  within  the  convention,  he  absented  himself 
much  from  its  sittings,  spending  most  of  his  time  quietly 
in  his  lodgings  and  garden  in  the  Faubourg  St.  Denis  in 
the  writing  and  preparation  for  the  printer  of  the  first 
part  of  the  "Age  of  Reason,"  and,  falling  under  the  sus- 
picion of  Robespierre  and  Marat,  who  believed  he  had 
gone  over  to  the  Girondest  party  by  reason  of  his  having 
declined  to  cast  his  vote  as  a  deputy  for  the  death  of 
the  king,  he  was  arrested  and  thrown  into  the  prison  of 
Luxembourg,  charged  with  no  other  offense  than  of  be- 
ing a  foreigner. 

Expelled  from  the  convention  on  Christmas  night, 
his  arrest  was  in  the  night  of  the  27th  (1793),  and,  it  is 
said  that  for  some  months  previous  Mr.  Paine,  seeing 
his  friends  one  by  one  taken  to  Luxembourg,  to  leave 
it  only  to  be  beheaded,  he  looked  daily  for  his  own  sum- 


22  His  Conception  of  Cod 

mons,  and  hurried  along  his  greatest,  and  what  he  be- 
lieved would  be  his  last  work  for  humanity. 

Pause  with  me  right  here,  Mr.  Chairman,  and  con- 
sider and  reflect  for  a  moment  at  the  wonderful  mind  of 
a  man  fully  recognizing  the  fact  that  he  was  under  the 
very  shadow  of  the  guillotine,  which  could  in  a  few 
months  and  under  such  circumstances  produce  so 
thoughtful,  so  scholarly,  so  philosophical,  so  grand  a 
work  as  the  "Age  of  Reason."  (Pub.  at  Paris,  Jan.  27, 
1794.) 

Declaring  his  disbelief  in  what  is  called  revealed  re- 
ligion and  giving  his  reasons  therefor,  the  reader  is  given 
Paine's  conception  of  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  true 
word  of  God,  the  only  true  revelation,  and  as  it  breathes 
as  pure  a  spirit  of  morality  and  philosophy  as  anything 
which  was  ever  written,  pardon  me  for  quoting  it  here: 

"It  is  only  in  the  creation  that  all  our  ideas  and  con- 
ceptions of  a  word  of  God  can  unite.  The  creation 
speaketh  an  universal  language  independently  of  hu- 
man speech  or  human  language,  multiplied  and  various 
as  they  may  be.  It  is  an  ever  existing  original  which 
every  man  can  read.  It  cannot  be  forged — it  cannot  be 
counterfeited,  it  cannot  be  lost;  it  cannot  be  altered;  it 
cannot  be  suppressed.  It  does  not  depend  upon  the  will 
of  man  whether  it  shall  be  published  or  not.  It  pub- 
lishes itself  from  one  end  of  the  earth  to  the  other.  It 
preaches  to  all  nations  and  to  all  worlds;  and  this  word 
of  God  reveals  to  Man  all  that  is  necessary  for  man  to 
know  of  God!  Do  we  want  to  contemplate  His  wis- 
dom? We  see  it  in  the  unchangeable  order  by  which 
the  incomprehensible  whole  is  governed.  Do  we  want 


The  Moral  Duty  of  Man  23 

to  contemplate  His  munificence?  We  see  it  in  the  abun- 
dance with  which  He  fills  the  earth.  Do  we  want  to 
contemplate  His  mercy?  We  see  it  in  his  not  withhold- 
ing that  abundance,  even  from  the  unthankful.  In  fine, 
do  we  want  to  know  what  God  is?  Search  not  a  book 
called  the  Scripture,  which  any  human  hand  might  make, 
but  the  scripture  called  'The  Creation !' " 

Where  can  greater  and  more  sublime  faith  be  found 
than  in  the  following,  which  I  take  from  the  closing 
page  of  the  first  part  of  this  work,  six  '.lours  after  the 
penning  of  which  by  him,  the  pulsations  of  whose  heart 
were  as  loving  and  kind  as  ever  throbbed  in  the  breast 
of  man,  was  under  arrest  and  supposedly,  on  his  way  to 
death. 

"The  Creation  we  behold  is  the  real  and  ever-existing 
word  of  God,  in  which  we  cannot  be  deceived.  It  pro- 
claimeth  His  power,  it  demonstrates  His  wisdom,  it  man- 
ifests His  goodness  and  beneficence.  The  moral  duty  of 
Man  consists  in  imitating  the  moral  goodness  and  ben- 
eficence of  God  manifested  in  the  creation  toward  all 
his  creatures.  That  seeing  as  we  daily  do,  the  goodness 
of  God  to  all  men,  it  is  an  example  calling  upon  all  men 
to  practice  the  same  toward  each  other,  and  consequently 
that  everything  of  persecution  and  revenge  between 
man  and  man,  and  everything  of  cruelty  to  animals,  is  a 
violation  of  moral  duty." 

Mr.  Paine  never  believed  that  the  grace  of  God 
would  save  souls  any  more  than  the  grace  of  colleges 
would  make  scholars  independent  of  earnest  effort,  nor 
that  the  blood  of  one  could  atone  for  the  sins  of  another. 
He  knew  that  true  and  exact  justice  was  as  sweet  as 


24  The  Republic  s  Ingratitude 

mercy,  and  he  believed  that  God  is  just,  and  compensa- 
tion an  inexorable  law. 

Mr.  Paine  remained  at  Luxembourg  ten  months  and 
nine  days,  being  released  in  the  latter  part  (Oct.  1794) 
of  the  following  year.  While  in  prison  an  order  for  be- 
heading him  was  made,  but  by  a  mere  accident,  and  Mr. 
Paine  himself  relates  the  story,  he  escaped. 

While  his  friends  were  coming  into  the  prison  and 
out  of  it  to  the  guillotine,  expecting  each  day  to  be  his 
last  on  earth,  this  remarkable  man,  it  is  said,  wrote  the 
second  part  of  "The  Age  of  Reason,"  though  I  am  more 
inclined  to  believe  that  it  was  later,  and  in  1795,  after 
his  release  from  Luxembourg,  and  while  for  a  year  and 
a  half  as  a  guest,  he  was  a  member  of  the  household  of 
Minister  Monroe  at  Paris,  that  the  bulk  of  it  was  writ- 
ten and  prepared  for  the  press. 

A  natural  inquiry  here  arises,  and  I  must,  for  I  can- 
not avoid  sort  of  parenthetically  referring  to  it,  and  that 
inquiry  is:  What  was  the  American  Government,  in 
the  meanwhile  doing  toward  his  release  from  Luxem- 
bourg? Nothing,  simply  nothing.  Mr.  Paine  was  an 
American  citizen — a  distinguished  foreigner  who  had 
been  invited  into  France  to  aid  in  the  formation  of  a 
republic.  He  had  been  thrown  into  prison  charged  with 
no  crime  other  than  that  of  his  citizenship.  Unfortun- 
ately however  by  reason  of  his  great  popularity  with  the 
American  residents  and  visitors  to  Paris,  and  from  other 
causes,  he  had  incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  American 
minister,  Mr.  Morris,  who,  it  is  said,  was  ever  in  heart 
a  royalist,  and  no  genuine  effort  was  made  for  his  re- 
lease. 


President  Failed  to  Act  25 

Stray  away  right  here  for  a  moment  with  me  and 
think  of  the  picture  thus  presented.  Paine,  the  author 
of  "Common  Sense,"  the  "Crisis,"  "The  Rights  of  Man," 
who,  unselfishly  and  without  reward  other  than  that 
which  came  to  his  own  conscience,  had  spent  twenty  of 
his  best  years  in  the  work  of  humanity,  liberty  and  free- 
dom, who  after  rearing  one  republic  in  the  new  world, 
putting  aside  all  ambition  and  hope  of  political  reward 
or  emolument,  returned  to  a  country  whose  monarch  he 
had  referred  to  as  a  drunken,  worthless  character,  a 
stupid  brute  and  murderer,  and  then  in  the  cause  of 
human  freedom,  in  the  interests  of  the  common  people, 
by  agitation  endeavored  to  rear  another,  and  quitting 
this  work  only  at  the  hasty  call  of  a  people  living  in 
distress  under  another  monarchy,  and  fleeing  to  their 
aid,  this  grand  man,  this  noblest  of  American  citizens 
whose  country  was  the  world  itself,  in  a  foreign  prison 
awaiting  for  eleven  months  the  republic  he  reared  to 
claim  him! 

Washington,  who  had  become  the  first  president, 
knew  that  Thomas  Paine,  whose  able  and  trench- 
ant pen  had  played  such  a  part  in  creating  the  very 
republic  over  which  he  was  the  executive  head,  and 
recognized  by  its  congress  as  the  founder  of  the 
republic,  ought  to  have  known,  if  he  did  not,  that 
the  French  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  appreciating 
the  greatness  and  the  humanity  of  the  man,  was  only 
waiting  for  some  authoritative  request  from  America 
to  set  him  at  liberty,  but,  and  ashamed  am  I  to  con- 
fess it,  history  contains  no  record  of  a  single  effort 


26  Truth  About  Washington 

put  forth  by  President  Washington  to  save  this  man 
from  dying  at  the  hands  of  a  French  mob. 

If,  Mr.  Chairman,  you  now  observe  a  slight  degree  of 
warmth  settling  under  my  ears  in  contemplation  of  this 
neglect,  amounting  almost  to  a  crime,  of  President 
Washington,  a  man  who  possessed  a  rare  balance  of 
large  powers,  whose  fine  exterior  attracted  respect  and 
whose  natural  dignity  and  silence  tended  to  preserve  it, 
but  the  pulsations  of  whose  heart  were  abnormally  slow, 
who  was  never  charged  by  contemporary  friend  or  foe 
with  possessing  a  single  sympathetic  feeling;  whose 
cold  blood  flowed  sluggishly  in  his  veins,  in  whose  com- 
position there  was  never  found  by  friend  a  single  kindly 
or  lovable  trait  of  character,  and  in  the  glamor  of  whose 
fame  the  American  people  have  for  nearly  a  century 
gone  into  rhapsodies,  let  it  serve  as  an  apology  for  my 
briefly  calling  attention  to  an  historical  fact,  by  relating 
one  or  two  things  which  may  put  the  student  on  in- 
quiry and  enable  him  to  reform  his  judgment  of  Amer- 
ican history,  and  it  is  this;  that  Washington  is  not 
entitled  to  the  credit  of  bringing  to  a  successful  termin- 
ation the  War  of  the  Revolution,  for  he  was  but  a 
mere  spoke  in  the  wheel,  and  not  a  very  efficient  one 
at  that. 

Fame  has  always  been  unusually  cheap,  and  grows 
greater  to  the  uninformed  with  the  lapse  of  time. 

The  war  of  the  revolution  had  been  happily  ended 
with  Washington  commander-in-chief  of  the  army. 
With  much  dignity  he  uncovered  his  head  to  receive 
the  customary  crown  of  laurel  wreath.  The  bells  were 
ringing,  anvils  were  being  fired,  and  every  one  was 


Had  a  Separate  Command  27 

joyous  and  happy.  No  one  at  such  a  time  was  disposed 
to  dispute  with  Washington  its  possession. 

It  is  conceded  that  Mr.  Washington  had  no  share 
in  the  political  part  of  the  revolution,  and  the  services 
he  rendered  were  entirely  of  a  military  character. 

He  began  his  command  in  June,  1775,  with  the  rank 
or  title  only  of  commander-in-chief,  but  in  reality  he 
had  a  separate  command.  He  had  no  control  over  or 
direction  of  the  army  to  the  northward  under  Gates  that 
captured  Burgoyne,  or  that  to  the  south  under  Greene 
that  recovered  the  southern  states,  but  it  served  to 
throw  upon  him  the  lustre  of  those  actions  and  make 
him  appear  as  the  soul  and  center  of  all  military  opera- 
tions in  America.  His  inactivity  in  1775,  when  the 
enemy  had  a  less  force  than  in  the  campaign  of  1776, 
produced  the  losses  and  misfortunes  that  marked  this 
gloomy  campaign,  which  Paine  sought  and  in  a  great 
measure  did  repair  with  his  first  "Crisis." 

Your  new  historian  denies  that  it  was  Washington 
who  fought  and  won  the  battle  of  Trenton,  but  he 
attributes  it  rather  as  a  victory  won  by  Paine  and  his 
"Crisis,"  and  on  this  proposition  he  stands  ready  to 
make  good,  although  a  discussion  of  it  here  is  beyond 
the  limit  of  the  present  paper. 

Burgoyne  and  his  army  in  1777  was  captured  at 
Saratoga  by  Gates,  who  was  not  under  the  authority 
of  Washington  it  must  be  remembered,  and  the  latter 
was  afterward  informed  of  the  fact  by  a  private  letter, 
not  from  Gates,  for  there  was  no  correspondence  be- 
tween them,  but  from  Clinton.  Burgoyne's  capture 


28  Sat  in  French  Convention 

sent  a  thrill  throughout  Europe  and  brought  to  the  col- 
onies their  alliance  with  France. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  must  hurry  along,  for  what 
was  intended  as  a  brief  sketch  is  reaching  the  propor- 
tions of  a  book. 

We  left  Mr.  Paine,  if  my  memory  serves  me,  after 
his  release  from  the  prison  of  Luxembourg,  a  guest  of 
James  Monroe,  then  American  Minister  to  France,  he 
who  afterward  became  a  President  of  the  United  States. 
The  French  Convention,  from  which  he  had  been  ex- 
pelled, unanimously  setting  aside  the  order  of  expulsion, 
invited  him  to  retake  his  seat  therein,  which  he  did, 
and  continuing  to  serve  with  distinction  he  was  shown 
great  consideration,  although  not  with  the  majority. 
He  participated  in  the  debates  which  resulted  in  the 
formation  of  the  constitution. 

The  Convention  being  permanently  dispersed  and  the 
Directory  organized,  the  second  part  of  the  "Age  of 
Reason"  was  brought  out,  (Oct.,  1796),  and  he  now 
wrote  and  published  several  pamphlets,  the  principal 
ones  being  his  "Dissertations  on  First  Principles  of 
Government,"  which  contained  a  clear  and  temperate 
statement  of  his  theories. .  .  "Agrarian  Justice  Opposed 
to  Agrarian  Law,"  and  the  "Decline  and  Fall  of  the 
English  System  of  Finance,"  which  foretold  the  suspen- 
sion of  specie  payments  by  the  Bank  of  England,  which 
was  to  follow. 

In  the  same  year  (1796),  at  Paris,  he  published  a 
letter,  principally  on  the  subject  of  the  treaty  Jay  had 
concluded  with  Great  Britain,  and  it  was  from  this  let- 
ter, which  I  believe  to  have  been  an  injudicious  one, 


The  Friend  of  Napoleon  29 

given  to  the  press  while  Paine  was  smarting  under  the 
treatment  which  had  been  accorded  him  by  Washington, 
that  first  served  to  call  my  attention  to  the  fact  that 
Washington  in  name  only  had  been  commander-in-chief, 
of  the  continental  forces  during  the  revolutionary 
struggle. 

Pairie  for  the  next  few  years  led  a  quiet,  but  an  in- 
dustrious life  in  Paris.  Napoleon,  who  was  then  in  the 
earlier  stages  of  his  career,  called  at  his  quarters  and 
formed  a  pleasant  acquaintance  with  him. 

The  desire,  however,  to  return  to  his  beloved  Amer- 
ica grew  stronger  and  stronger,  and  while  he  diverted 
his  mind  in  mechanics  and  inventions,  he  determined 
to  take  all  chances  of  being  found  by  a  British  cruiser, 
and  he  returned  to  America  in  the  fall  of  1802,  landing 
at  Baltimore. 

The  "Age  of  Reason"  had,  of  course,  preceded  him, 
and  on  account  of  religious  prejudice,  to  be  seen  in  his 
society  was  to  be  socially  ostracized  and  damned  by 
one's  neighbors.  Forgetting  the  importance  and  the 
magnitude  of  his  revolutionary  services,  unmindful  of 
his  grand  ability,  the  loftiness  of  his  soul,  and  his  great 
love  for  humanity,  of  his  sufferings  and  many  depriva- 
tions for  the  cause  of  freedom,  the  author  of  "Common 
Sense"  and  the  "Rights  of  Man"  was  unmercifully 
abused,  roasted  and  villified  by  the  political  and  secular 
press,  and  the  church. 

Thomas  Jefferson  was  President,  and  he  greeted 
Paine  with  great  cordiality  at  the  White  House,  which 
brought  a  storm  of  abuse  upon  him,  and,  to  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son's credit  it  may  be  said  that,  notwithstanding  the 


30  His  Death  at  New  York 

political  and  other  disadvantages  of  Paine's  friend- 
ship, he  braved  sentiment  and  publicly  avowed  that 
friendship. 

Mr.  Paine  went  to  New  York,  where  he  was  wel- 
comed by  Mayor  Clinton  and  a  few  devoted  friends, 
and  from  thence  to  Bordentown,  and  from  there  to  his 
farm  at  New  Rochelle,  a  farm  which  had  some  years 
before  been  presented  to  him  by  the  State  of  New 
York. 

All  of  Jefferson's  enemies  became  Paine's,  some  of 
Paine's  became  Jefferson's,  notwithstanding  which  the 
latter  was  re-elected  to  the  presidency  by  a  decisive 
vote,  and  this  fact  was  really  the  one  happy  and  shining 
episode  which  brightened  the  life  of  Mr.  Paine,  after 
resetting  his  feet  on  the  shores  of  America,  following 
his  fifteen  years  of  tumultuous  life  abroad. 

In  the  beginning  of  1809,  in  his  seventy-third  year, 
recognizing  that  he  was  approaching  the  end  of  the 
mortal,  Mr.  Paine  made  his  will.  The  people  of  Amer- 
ica knew,  and  those  abroad  were  apprised  of  his  physical 
condition,  and  then  it  was  that  brutal  curiosity  in  some 
cases,  and  well  meant  kindness  on  the  part  of  clergy- 
men and  religious  fools  and  fanatics  in  others,  did  much 
to  annoy  him.  Some  of  the  latter  sought  to  have  him 
repent  and  believe,  that  he  might  avoid  damnation  and 
eternal  suffering.  His  home  and  his  sick  chamber  had 
to  be  guarded  during  the  whole  of  his  illness,  and  fin- 
ally, on  June  8,  1809,,  at  New  York,  the  grand  spirit 
of  that  ardent  lover  of  human  souls,  whose  country 
encompassed  the  whole  globe,  and  whose  religion  was 
to  do  good,  passed  into  the  higher  and  better  life. 


Vilified  by  the  Church  31 

Denied  burial  elsewhere,  his  poor,  tired  old  body, 
followed  only  by  the  members  of  a  little  French  family 
who  in  France  had  befriended  him,  and,  in  turn  he  had 
befriended,  a  couple  of  negroes,  and  a  dear  old  Quaker 
by  the  name  of  Hicks,  was  two  days  afterward  taken 
to  his  New  Rochelle  farm,  and  buried.  Then  there  arose 
villiners  of  all  creeds  and  religions,  because  of  Paine's 
crime  for  having  stood  for  a  pure  natural  religion,  had 
written  and  published  the  fact  that  his  God  was  Omni- 
potent Goodness,  and  the  blood-guilty  Jehovah  of  the 
Old  Testament  who  bade  his  favorites  wade  in  the 
blood  of  their  enemy,  was  an  intolerable  calumny. 

Ah,  Mr.  Chairman,  you,  sir,  who  have  that  wonder- 
ful clairvoyant  power,  that  enables  you  to  see  spirit  as 
well  as  material  objects,  look  about  you  tonight!  All 
over  this  little  home,  in  the  lower  part  of  the  house, 
prone  on  the  floor  and  huddling  in  the  corners  of  the 
rooms  the  better  to  cover  their  nakedness,  a  nakedness 
denoting  the  ignorance  of  their  minds,  the  darkness  of 
their  souls,  are  six  hundred  ragged,  wretched,  disem- 
bodied spirits,  silent,  but  terrible  witnesses  of  the  truth 
of  what  this  man  taught  in  his  "Age  of  Reason"  and 
for  which  he  was  stoned. 

Through  the  press  and  otherwise,  his  political  and 
personal  enemies,  the  clergy  and  ignorant  fanatical 
devotees  of  the  church,  shamefully  traduced  by  libel 
and  slander  the  character  of  this  man  when  they  learned 
that  he  was  dead.  He  was  pictured  as  a  two-horned 
devil  with  the  usual  forked,  orthodox  tail,  and  as  having 
possessed  all  the  vices  which  had  ever  been  charged  to 
any  member  of  the  human  race. 


32  Mr.  Paine  s  Character 

Conway  in  his  Life,  tells  us  that  within  the  past  fif- 
teen years,  in  the  British  Museum,  he  himself  counted 
three  hundred  and  twenty-seven  entries  of  books  of  and 
concerning  Paine,  in  the  majority  of  which  he  was 
characterized  as  this  devil. 

During  all  this  time  where  was  Thomas  Paine?  The 
unstrung,  tuneless  harp,  that  magnificent  instrument 
upon  which  for  many  years  by  a  master  musician  had 
been  played  a  grand  symphony  of  nature,  the  melody 
of.  which  heard  around  the  world  had  stirred  the  very 
souls  of  men  prompting  the  exercise  of  thought  and  rea- 
son, lay  dead  and  buried  in  a  little  corner  of  the  New 
Rochelle  farm,  scoffed  and  jeered  at  by  the  ignorant  and 
malicious,  but  sir,  the  living  harper,  the  real  player 
whose  skillful  touch  on  the  strings  of  the  mortal  instru- 
ment had  brought  forth  such  grand  and  lofty  music, 
and  whose  country  was  the  very  globe  itself,  his  religion 
to  do  good,  was  over  the  mountains  borne  tenderly  in 
the  loving  arms  of  divine  teachers  to  spheres  of  learn- 
ing and  erudition,  and  without  for  a  moment  losing  con- 
sciousness as  he  passed  through  the  so-called  gateway 
of  death,  he  began  at  once  breathing  the  pure  atmosphere 
of  spirit,  and  in  continuance  of  his  work  on  earth  his 
power  and  eloquence  were  again  being  exercised  in  the 
cause  of  humanity  that  he  so  dearly  loved. 

Now  comes  a  bit  of  embarrassment  on  my  part,  for 
this  paper  would  not  be  considered  complete  by  my 
hearers  without  after  having  outlined  the  principal  parts 
of  his  work,  my  own  judgment,  humble  as  it  is,  was  not 
expressed  as  to  Mr.  Paine's  character. 


Knew  the  Human  Heart  33 

I  have  looked  for  some  grave  faults  in  Mr.  Paine,  for 
though  an  ardent  admirer  I  dislike  to  appear  as  one 
who,  were  there  such,  would  gloss  them  over,  but  the 
fact  is  that  so  much  has  been  said  and  written  by  the 
traducers  of  Mr.  Paine  during  the  fifteen  or  twenty 
years  following  his  death,  which  was  not  truthful,  so 
much  after  having  been  run  down  were  found  to  be  abso- 
lutely wicked  falsehoods  begotten  by  the  ignorance  and 
superstitions  of  the  time,  and  which  have  since  passed 
as  history,  that  one  cannot  rely  on  a  single  statement 
then  made  and  recourse  must  be  had  to  that  well-known 
maxim,  so  unquestionably  a  fact  in  the  case  of  Mr. 
Paine,  "Falsus  in  uno,  falsus  in  omnibus." 

I  am  prepared  to  concede,  however,  and  am  glad  to 
do  so  for  I  weary  of  eulogism,  taking  advantage  of  the 
fact  that  his  friend  and  first  biographer,  Clio  Rickman, 
failed  to  deny  it,  that  during  the  Reign  of  Terror  in 
Paris  after  he  absented  himself  from  the  sittings  of  the 
French  Convention  and  was  for  many  months  living 
quietly  at  his  house  in  the  Faubourg  St.  Denis  prepar- 
ing the  first  part  of  his  "Age  of  Reason,"  and  before  he 
was  sent  to  Luxembourg,  he  indulged  somewhat  freely 
in  French  brandy,  and  if  this  be  true  and  the  literary 
work  then  done  was  under  its  inspiration,  I  can  but  re- 
peat the  saying  attributed  to  Lincoln  that  Mr.  Paine 
should  be  severely  censured  in  that  the  world  was  not 
apprised  by  him  of  the  brand  and  the  maker's  name, 
that  a  barrel  of  it  could  possibly  be  found  and,  if  you 
please,  placed  in  the  cellar  of  this  home. 

Mr.  Paine  was  evidently  a  keen  observer  with  a  log- 
ical, scientific  mind,  a  man  of  great  determination  and 


34  Brave,  Forcible  and  Eloquent 

wonderful  perseverance.  His  biographers  seem  to  think 
that  he  lacked  knowledge  of  men,  but  those  wonderful 
appeals  to  the  patriotism  of  his  countrymen  in  "Common 
Sense"  and  his  earlier  numbers  of  the  "Crisis,"  bear  wit- 
ness to  the  contrary,  and  show  that  he  intimately  knew 
the  human  heart  as  well  as  how  to  reach  it. 

He  certainly  was  absolutely  lacking  in  that  commer- 
cial spirit  which  clings  as  a  close  fitting  garment  to  the 
average  American  of  today,  for  he  might  have  acquired 
considerable  wealth  by  the  sale  of  his  copyrights  alone, 
but  he  chose  to  present  them  to  the  people  in  behalf  of 
whom  his  pen  was  ever  wielded. 

He  was  always  brave,  forcible  and  eloquent.  It  was 
a  wonderful  knack  he  had  of  stating  a  proposition,  in 
fact  stating  anything,  clearly  and  distinctly. 

He  was  a  man  who  possessed  that  highest  attribute 
of  the  human  heart,  a  large  humanity,  and  he  was  as 
gentle  and  kindly  as  a  child.  Sensitive,  though  he  lacked 
that  pride  which  usually  accompanies  sensitiveness. 

His  biographers  claim  that  he  was  comparatively 
ignorant  of  books,  and  came  to  his  own  conclusions  by 
the  logic  of  his  own  reasoning.  Although  he  had  an 
uncommon  share  of  original  genius,  the  implied  compli- 
ment in  the  first  half  of  this  claim  I  do  not  assent  to, 
although  agreeing  with  the  last.  He  certainly  was  one 
of  the  great  luminaries  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  and 
because  of  his  wonderful  memory  his  mind  was  a  perfect 
storehouse  of  facts. 

He  was  religious,  his  convictions  were  few,  but  they 
were  profound.  He  disliked  war;  he  disliked  injustice; 
he  hated  slavery,  and  his  public  life  was  one  long  battle 


Great  Love  for  Humanity  35 

against  every  form  of  oppression.  I  presume  he  had 
faults,  but  they  must  have  been  trivial.  He  was  very 
intolerant  himself,  and  yet  he  seems  to  have  abhorred 
it  in  others,  but  Mr.  Chairman,  during  the  period  in 
which  we  have  attempted  to  review  him,  never  was 
there  a  pulsation  of  the  kindly  heart  of  this  gifted,  noble 
soul,  which  did  not  throb  in  behalf  of  humanity  he  so 
much  loved. 

His  last  days  were  bitter  ones,  for  he  was  unable  to 
endure  the  ingratitude  and  the  contempt  of  his  former 
friends.  He  did  not  enjoy  being  let  alone,  and  during 
the  last  six  years  of  his  life  in  the  mortal  which  were 
spent  in  his  beloved  republic,  he  was  cross,  sour,  ner- 
vous, irritable  and  out  of  temper,  and  in  that  condition 
his  great  soul  passed  into  the  life  of  spirit,  and,  living 
there  under  its  quickening  influence,  he  seems  never  to 
have  been  able  to  forget  the  injustice  and  wrong  done  to 
his  reputation,  nor  the  noble  cause  for  which  it  was  sac- 
rificed. 

His  inherent  love  of  humanity  accentuated  as  it  was, 
as  I  have  stated,  by  the  quickening  power  of  spirit  and 
his  determination  to  do  good  and  aid  in  bringing  relig- 
ious freedom  to  the  minds  of  the  people,  has  prompted 
him  since  passing  to  the  higher  and  better  life  where 
hosts  of  advanced  helpers  were  found  to  carry  on  the 
fight  for  humanity,  and  the  mighty  influence  of  Thomas 
Paine,  and  that  of  his  divine  compatriots  is  now  being 
felt  over  the  entire  civilized  world,  and  along  religious 
lines  man  is  beginning  to  do  his  own  thinking,  has  be- 
gun to  use  his  God-given  reason  as  this  untiring  and 


36  Future  Will  do  Him  Justice 

unselfish  laborer  for  humanity  in  his  masterful  work 
the  "Age  of  Reason"  urged  he  should  do. 

Then,  Mr.  Chairman,  as  thought  has  advanced  during 
the  century  following  his  passing,  and  the  human  mind 
has  become  so  liberalized  along  the  lines  I  have  referred 
to,  we  can  perhaps  now  afford  to  become  better  ac- 
quainted with  the  divine  patriotic,  noble  and  unselfish 
life  of  Mr.  Paine  and  reform  our  estimate  of  his  char- 
acter, for: 

While  the  name  of  this  great  teacher  and  patriot  has 
almost  been  left  out  of  the  history  of  the  glorious  deeds 
which  his  inspiration  caused  to  be  performed,  in  the  per- 
fected half  regenerate  future  the  author  of  that  grand 
sentiment,  which  has  been  an  inspiration  to  so  many, 
"The  World  is  My  Country,  to  do  Good  My  Religion," 
though  he  had  never  written  "Common  Sense,"  the 
"Crisis,"  or  the  "Rights  of  Man,"  nay,  though  he  had 
never  written  another  line,  in  the  re-written  history  of 
the  United  States — of  the  world,  that  name  will  stand 
out  in  great  letters  of  light. 


14  DAY  USE 

DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 


or 


LD  2lA-60w-4,'64 
(E4555slO)476B 


.General  Library 

Umversity  of  California 

Berkeley 


YC  05968 


